A personal story – Why California is out of money

There are no links in this post, because it is a 100% personal story. As such, take all of this with a big grain of salt. This story has a statistical sample of 1, with all the accuracy that implies. However, this is such an interesting vignette, I couldn’t resist sharing.

This weekend we were having dinner with my parents at Disney World. As the conversation continued, the subject of my cousin’s new marriage came up. She just got married for the 3rd time back in the spring in a lavish wedding in Las Vegas. Now I can’t really call my cousin a gold digger, since she has a degree in dentistry and a considerable nest egg from back when she was in practice. However, she does not associate with anyone without money, and certainly won’t marry someone without it.

I’m sure your “spidey-sense” is tingling right now, but the story gets better.

He lives in Phoenix. Every week, he flies his private plane to California to work. He has a condo near his job, to make it convenient for him. But this weekend, my Dad told me the best part. This guy found a Mercedes SL500 AMG hardtop convertible for sale in Sarasota, Florida. He asked my Dad to go check it out for him, before he purchased it. Turns out it is in mint condition, so my new “cousin-in-law” is going to pay cash for it, and have it shipped to Phoenix. These cars retail new for over $100,000.

Now I don’t begrudge anyone making some money (besides the normal in-family jealousy). But I found it fascinating that California can afford to pay its school administrators enough money to allow them to live such a lifestyle. How was I to know that engineering was such a dead-end job?